scholarly journals Towards A More “Reasonable” Ontario Municipal Board: Looking To Nova Scotia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward LaRusic
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Nova Scotia ◽  
Land Use Planning ◽  
Correct Decision ◽  
Planning Decisions ◽  
New Process ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Ontario Municipal Board ◽  
Neighbourhood Association

The powerful Ontario Municipal Board (OMB, or the Board) has long been maligned as an unelected provincial body with the authority to meddle with local land-use planning decisions. Concurrently, politicians have been accused of abusing the purpose of the OMB by pushing politically contentious decisions on the Board, rather than oppose an active neighbourhood association. This paper argues that these issues stem from the Board’s "standard of review", which guides the OMB to make the "most correct" decision, sometimes in opposition to the municipality. If the OMB adopted a standard of review of "reasonableness" when reviewing land use planning appeals like the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board does, much greater deference would be given to municipalities by the Board. This would keep the expertise of the OMB intact, without the radical impacts to development that may accompany the creation of a new process for appealing municipal decisions.

scholarly journals Towards A More “Reasonable” Ontario Municipal Board: Looking To Nova Scotia

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward LaRusic
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Nova Scotia ◽  
Land Use Planning ◽  
Correct Decision ◽  
Planning Decisions ◽  
New Process ◽  
The Creation ◽  
Ontario Municipal Board ◽  
Neighbourhood Association

The powerful Ontario Municipal Board (OMB, or the Board) has long been maligned as an unelected provincial body with the authority to meddle with local land-use planning decisions. Concurrently, politicians have been accused of abusing the purpose of the OMB by pushing politically contentious decisions on the Board, rather than oppose an active neighbourhood association. This paper argues that these issues stem from the Board’s "standard of review", which guides the OMB to make the "most correct" decision, sometimes in opposition to the municipality. If the OMB adopted a standard of review of "reasonableness" when reviewing land use planning appeals like the Nova Scotia Utility and Review Board does, much greater deference would be given to municipalities by the Board. This would keep the expertise of the OMB intact, without the radical impacts to development that may accompany the creation of a new process for appealing municipal decisions.

Towards Protection of Scenic Resources

1980 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-158 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip Dearden
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Planning ◽  
Renewable Resource ◽  
Systematic Evaluation ◽  
Scenic Beauty ◽  
Planning Decisions ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Visual Resource ◽  
Spiritual Resource

This essay has sought to draw together some of the reasons behind the recent upsurge in interest in the systematic evaluation of scenic beauty. It has covered a wide range of disciplines, because of the multi-faceted nature of feelings about landscape. These feelings have been synthesized into four themes representing landscape as a non-renewable resource, as a recreational resource, as a spiritual resource, and finally as a historical resource. Undoubtedly many other equally valid reasons exist as to why the visual resource of the landscape should be recognized as an important consideration in land-use planning decisions.

scholarly journals Integrating Land-Use and Renewable Energy Planning Decisions: A Technical Mapping Guide for Local Government

2020 ◽  
Vol 9 (5) ◽  
pp. 324
Author(s):  
Jiaao Guo ◽  
Victoria Fast ◽  
Philip Teri ◽  
Kirby Calvert
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Renewable Energy ◽  
Land Use Planning ◽  
Local Governments ◽  
Emission Reduction ◽  
Land Use Changes ◽  
Planning Decisions ◽  
Environmentally Sensitive ◽  
Utility Scale

Land-based, utility-scale renewable energy (RE) systems using wind or solar resources to generate electricity is becoming a decisive solution to meet long-term carbon emission reduction goals. Local governments are responding in kind, by adopting their own goals and/or establishing policies to facilitate successful implementations of RE in their jurisdiction. One factor to successful RE development is to locate the most suitable lands, while continuing to sustain land-based economies and ecosystem services. Local governments often have limited resources; and this is especially true for small, land-constrained local governments. In this paper, we illustrate how a standardized RE technical mapping framework can be used by local governments to advance the implementation of RE in land-constrained areas, through a case study in the Town of Canmore, Alberta. Canmore has a limited municipal area surrounded by the Canadian Rockies, along with complex land-use bylaw and environmentally sensitive habitats. This mapping framework accounts for these conditions as it considers theoretical resources, technically recoverable lands, legally accessible lands, and the spatial capital cost of connecting new RE facilities. Different land-use planning scenarios are considered including changing setback buffers and expanding restrictions on development to all environmentally sensitive districts. The total RE potentials are then estimated based on the least-conflict lands. Technically speaking, even under restrictive land suitability scenarios, Canmore holds enough land to achieve ambitious RE targets, but opportunities and challenges to implementation remain. To eventually succeed in its long-term emission reduction goal, the most decisive step for Canmore is to balance the growth of energy demands, land-use changes, and practicable RE development. Mapping systems that can study the influence of land-use planning decisions on RE potential are critical to achieving this balance.

Transit Corridor Livability: Realizing the Potential of Transportation and Land Use Integration

2017 ◽  
Vol 2671 (1) ◽  
pp. 20-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bruce Appleyard ◽  
Christopher E. Ferrell ◽  
Matthew Taecker
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Planning ◽  
The United States ◽  
Theory And Practice ◽  
Life Outcomes ◽  
Travel Health ◽  
Planning Decisions ◽  
Potential Benefits ◽  
Integration Strategies ◽  
Literature Theory

In recent years, strategies to promote transportation and land use integration have gained prominence in planning-related fields, believed to yield many potential benefits toward travel, health, welfare, and sustainability goals. Although livability has been identified as an important outcome of this approach as well, little guidance exists on what livability actually is, how to measure it, or how transportation and land use integration strategies can promote it. The findings of a multiyear study of the livability literature, theory, and practice are followed by an extensive quantitative and qualitative study of more than 350 transit corridors including thousands of stations throughout the United States. Although often dismissed as subjective, this research shows that livability can be understood in well-defined and measurable ways, which are validated through an innovative geospatial approach using detailed national data on travel, health, safety, and other quality-of-life outcomes. The findings in this paper show how more integrated and livable transit corridors can yield multiple benefits regarding travel, health, welfare, and sustainability. The findings show how livability goals and their measures can inform planning decisions to promote equitable access to opportunities locally and regionally and yield multiple benefits. Therefore, livability can be seen as an organizing principle for determining when and how to deploy integrated transportation and land use planning strategies. A practical handbook and a calculator for building livable transit corridors are introduced; both were designed to empower practitioners and members of the public to equitably achieve higher levels of livability at local and regional scales.

Defining the ground for land-use-based direct public-value capture in Austria

2020 ◽  
Vol ahead-of-print (0) ◽  
pp. 1-20
Author(s):  
Arthur Schindelegger ◽  
Laura Sidonie Mayr
Keyword(s):  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Planning ◽  
Land Values ◽  
Land Value ◽  
Legal Analysis ◽  
Recent Discussion ◽  
Value Capture ◽  
The Public ◽  
Planning Decisions ◽  
Key Aspects

The discussion whether and how to capture the increment of land value has been present in academia and politics for decades. Only few countries have established comprehensive systems to calculate land values and introduce a regulatory basis to directly or indirectly capture increments linked to land-use planning decisions for the public good. This article elaborates the potentials of and barriers to implementing a land-use-based direct value-capture mechanism within Austria’s fragmented planning regime. The considerations are built upon an analysis of the existing framework and instruments linked to land value and planning to identify the context of constraints for an additional or replacing instrument. Based on a legal analysis and qualitative expert interviews, key aspects for linking value capture to land-use planning decisions are identified and conclusions drawn based on a recent discussion in Austria.

Challenges for introducing risk assessment into land use planning decisions in an Indian context

2016 ◽  
Vol 42 ◽  
pp. 14-26 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anandita Sengupta ◽  
Debanjan Bandyopadhyay ◽  
Sandip Roy ◽  
Cees J. van Westen ◽  
Anne van der Veen
Keyword(s):  
Risk Assessment ◽  
Land Use ◽  
Land Use Planning ◽  
Planning Decisions ◽  
Indian Context
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